rossean blog

Cabin on the lake in London, Kentucky!

2009-12-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

I have had some work out in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio over the past couple months. I saw the chance for a long weekend at the beginning of December, so I cashed in some frequent flyer miles and Keli was booked on my next trip.

Once Keli is on the case, you're sure to maximize your time and the possible adventures available to you in any given set of days. She said to me casually about 4 days before we left, "Did you realize that we are only going to be about 5 hours from your sister?" My sister Lisa and her husband Dave and their 3 kids live in Madison Alabama. We miss them terribly and I truly enjoy anytime we get to spend time with them. But 5 hours on 4 days notice I thought might be a little much. I made the call. She sounded excited and mildly optimistic, but that's where I left it.

By the next afternoon, her and Keli had not only figured out a way for us to spend some time together, but we rented a cabin that was cheaper than what we would have spent on a hotel and allowed us to spend the maximum amount of time together.

There was a very complicated network of decks leading down to the water. It was very beautiful there.
Benjamin is very used to having his picture taken and makes some great poses. I'm not sure why. :)
A little pontoon boat at the bottom that I think you can use.

Dave taking the same picture that I was about to take.

And there it is!

I wish I would have gotten more pictures, but here are a few. That was really fun and I'm glad I made the call.

Update

2009-11-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

My sister has been bugging me about the fact that this has not been updated since easter. I think she is one a only a few people that read this so I'm not sure why she cares. She sees me enough that I don't know what else she want to know. But here you go:

Jared has been traveling A LOT with work. He and his parnters wrote a point of sales program that he has been installing in little ceasars pizza stores. It is good because he has been busy which in turn makes money but having him gone is hard.

We went to disneyland in Sept for about a week. We had a great time and for christmas we are giving the kids another trip in april just before our annual passes expire. Hopefully they will still be okay with it when Christmas comes around that they don't have TOO many gifts to open I will have to just remind them about Disneyland which they are really excited about.

The kids are loving school and I love there teacher she is so patience with my two perfectionist children. They both get so mad when they can't get things perfect. Isabel won't even try most of the time in front of people until she can do it perfectly which is hard when the teacher is trying to teach them and wants to see the work. Their teachers is great and is helping them a lot, they LOVE learning.

Lilly is a sassy little thing I think I hear "mom you don't make me happy" at least 20 times because if you don't let lilly do everything and give her everyhting she wants she is unhappy. She tells you this and then stomps off into another room. I must admit sometimes it is cute.

My furture is Jared being gone, hopefully I get to go with him in a couple of weeks, Thanksgiving with Jared family his grandma from Hawaii is going to be here, and then christmas with My side of the family. Life is good and I am grateful for all my blessings that I have. Good family, good health, and Great life.

Easter

2009-04-19T14:33:00.001-07:00

I really have a hard time with Easter probably more than I should. I HATE buying the kids a tons of candy because for the next week or two I feel that all I am doing is saying stop eating the candy or get off the counter we are eating dinner soon no more candy. I love reflecting on Christ and what he did for the world and that he is my Savior. So how does that translate to buying candy for the kids. I was at the store staring at all the "Easter Stuff" not wanting to buy Sweets. I put a kite for each of the kids bubbles and a little basket in the shopping cart and tried to walk away. I did stop myself because I knew that if I didn't buy the kids some sweets there dad would and it would 4 times as much as I would buy them. Before I told Jared that I bought things for the kids I talked with him about my urge not to "buy" things for Easter. He said I don't care if you buy things as long as you get them some candy if you don't, I will. (exactly what I feared) I told him against my judgment I did buy some. Needless to say we had a great Easter focused on Christ during Church which was amazing. I feel so blessed in my live for my Savior all that he endured in Gethsemane for me. Then enjoyed the rest of the evening at Jared moms house with the family. Here are the Pictures from the day ENJOY!!

More b-day pics

2009-04-06T11:33:00.001-07:00

Isabel's Birthday Party

2009-04-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Isabels birthday is on the 7th but Jared had to go out of town for the week so we had her party on Thursday. I made her Belle castle cake. It was fun to try and I think it turned out pretty good. If you can't tell the figurines on the cake on Belle from beauty and the beas and then in the water it is ariel and her sisters. I had so much fun making the cake but it was so much funner (nice word ) to see Isabel's reaction to all the parts of the cake while I was decorating it. I love her with all my heart and I am so glad she is a part of my family.

Our first fracture...

2009-03-13T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you who don't know, Brady hates doctors, dentists, nurses and basically anyone who he can identify as people that might poke at him or give him a shot. So today, he was playing on the trampoline and was trying to get off while someone else was trying to get on, bada bing, bada boom, hits his shoulder really hard on the ground.

He came in the house crying and complaining of pain in his shoulder. Just for some reference, Brady hurts himself daily. It's usually pretty dramatic, but is over within a couple of minutes unless someone new comes over and he has to retell the ordeal complete with tears.

So 15 minutes later, he was in the living room playing a video game by himself, and he was just whimpering because of pain. So Keli and I went out there and he quickly tried to hide the pain because of course pain means he has to go to the doctor. So we talked him in to walking up to Melissa's house (his pediatrician is one of our neighbors) to check it out.

She looked at it, despite Brady's screaming and complaining and said we ought to go and get it x-rayed. First pictures.

So he thought the lights were pretty cool and he loved that the guy had this remote control that allowed him to move the camera and adjust where the light was.

So this might be the only doctor Brady has liked. The fact that he never poked him probably helped.

There was a little bit of a scared look here. So afterwards, they showed him the x-rays and he thought it was pretty cool that you could see his bones, but it seemed to also freak him out a little bit.

After the doctors reviewed, it was a clavicle (sp?) fracture. So he's all slinged up.

Here is our life for the next 3-4 weeks. Should be pretty fun.

Whats been going on?

2009-02-28T04:15:00.000-08:00

Well I know that I have not blogged for a long time so I woke a WAYYYY to early this morning and decided I would catch up a little. This month has been full of very excited things. My parents who have lived in there house for 25 yrs moved to a new house that is about 2 blocks away for me. I am so excited to have them this close. They have been in Hawaii for a month and are coming home today. I have missed them so much they are a great support to me. I don't know what I am going to do when they go on a mission. On the 24th of Feb we were able to adopted our two girls officially. It was a great experience. We have know that we were going to be able to adopted them since July but it has just been a long process. We will be sealing them to us on the 7th of march which I am sooo excited about. It is one of the neatest experiences I have ever done.(I talking about when we did it with Brady) And of course we will have a big party after. I think back about my past two years and the things that I have learned about myself and I am grateful for the ups and the downs along the way. I have grown so much. I have learned that you don't always have to be the strong one and I can rely on people other that my own family. Asking for help is not a bad thing. Our next journey will be just a great and I know that I can handle anything they throw at me. We are going to continue to do foster care because they are so needed and I feel we can help families get back on track and do the things they need to do to become healthy and stable families. We are going to get older girls. Here are some of the pictures from court and I will post the temple pictures soon(first we have to go).

Our January

2009-01-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

Our January was great!! We got to accompany Jared on one of his business trips so we all drove to denver for about a week. We had a great time. We spent the day with Grandpa Rossean, went to the aquarium, childrens museum, and a dinosaur and other animals museum. We swam in the pool almost every night which my fish I mean kids loved that. We played and daddy worked, we were very lucky he was able to come with us to most of the places and then just work at night. We have found out on official adoption date which will be Feb 20 and then we will have the girls sealed to us on the 7 of March. What a relief to have it coming to an end for now :). Who knows what is in store for us later. We know that we have been very blessed and lucky to have these girls come into our lives. They have changed me and made me a better person and a better mother. I want thank our "angel" (sometimes a devil) who let the girls become a part of our family. I hope, and will try to give them everything good that you could wish for them. You will be in my heart forever.

I wish I had some pictures to post from our trip but I can't find the cord that connects my camera to my computer hopefully soon I will find it and post the pics.

My little rock star

2009-01-06T10:21:00.000-08:00

We got the game lips for christmas. It has two wireless mics for it. The kids have had a lot of fun with it. Lilly loves to hear her voice on the TV and she is not very happy when it is someone elses turn for the mic.

sledding

2009-01-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

The kids got sleds for christmas from Grandma Rhonda. So of we went to Rock Canyon to go sledding. The hills are fun there are steep enough for the kids to have fun but not so much that they can't walk up them. We went down a couple together the adults with the kids and then the Brave Brady said I want to go by myself. I said okay. He went down as Isabel was watching and I could see her wheels turning. Am I going to let Brady be the only one to go by himself. She was very nervous but she finally said I want to go by myself. I was so proud because she is usual pretty nervous about things like this. If is might be scary she prefers not to do it. Jared went to the bottom of the hill so she could have him to look at. Jared says her face looked like she was scarred to death but she got off and said that was so fun lets do it again. So off she went for the second round and of course she hit a bump in the snow and falls off. She was of course at that point was done and just wanted to sit on my lap. She didn't want to leave but she didn't want to go down the hill. (you will see why in a minute) While she and I were sitting watching Lilly is screaming she wants to o by herself and not with any one. I thinks she asks just about all the adults if she could could by herself and they said no but that they would take her and she would said no and walk off with her sled in hand. When it was time to go jared slid down the hill on his belly and Lilly got to go in the sled by herself. She was happy. When we got home we tended to the raspberry on Isabel's face and she said that was fun until I fell off. So hopefully she will go again. The next day her cheek was so swollen and around her eye but thankfully it didn't hurt she was happy as a clam and she wold smile and have chinese eye and chipmunk cheek it was so cute. I happy to report that it is almost heal there is still the raspberry but even that is shrinking everyday. I hope it does not scar.

Christmas and the other stuff I have not posted

2008-12-26T11:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the stuff we have been doing the last two months. It has been very busy for me and my family but that keeps us out of trouble (kind of). We have had two birthdays, gone the the lights at the zoo, had programs for preschool and last but not least Christmas. I hope everyone had a very merry christmas!!! Enjoy the pictures.

Isabel performing Jingle Bells!

2008-12-07T20:12:00.000-08:00

So I was pretty stereotypical when Brady was born. I was so excited to have a boy and think about all the cool boy stuff we would be able to do together, and that has definitely lived up to the hype so far, but you have got to be kidding me. I never knew how cute little girls could be and this is the cutest thing EVER, EVER, EVER!

2 more videos to come!

Keaka Jumping

2008-11-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

So my sister in law and her two kids moved in to our house for a while. It has been a crazy wild house. The ages of the kids in our house now are 5,4,3,2,1. wow!!! It really has not been too bad we have had a good time. The kids have been really having a lot of fun together. here are some pictures of Keaka Jumping on the tramp and just loving it.

2008-11-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

So I was sitting reading a book in my living room and I see Bradys head poke up from the stairs. Then his whole body and her is laughing so hard which of course make me laugh. He said "Mom i'm wearing a dress-up dress is that funny?" and I of course say of course that is funny. One minute later my Nephew who is living with us comes up stairs with his dress on. They danced around together for a while and then decided the dresses were itchy. (This message is for my brother I did not put this on him he did all by himself.)

Rosseans spa

2008-11-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

Who needs a real spa when you can get a mud bath in the back yard. Lilly was outside playing so nice and quiet. Then she tried to come in the house and I heard yelling from the kids. I came to see what the yelling was about and I find her loving every minute of her mud bath. It only took two times washing her hair to get all the mud out. Boy I love that girl!!!

Strong Elbows

2008-11-10T00:30:00.001-08:00

So, since Karl's surgery, he's had to switch some things around at the store so that he could still do them. One of the things was to put a pulley system on his ramp with a little hand crank that would allow him to lower and raise the ramp. Before, this was a pretty hard job. I really had to lean back to get the thing to go up and also to be able to drop it down without slamming it.

He and Matt are pretty smart, so they rigged up this system. It's so easy, even Brady can do it with his strong elbows. Observe.

For the record, it took a few minutes, but the ramp went all the way to the top under "Brady Power."

Walking to Church

2008-11-10T00:18:00.000-08:00

We figured that with just a couple good weeks left before horrible winter, that we ought to try walking to church a couple of times. For living in Provo, right by BYU, our walk is terribly long. We pass the married stake center, the MTC and the Provo Temple to get there. If the kids keep moving, it takes about 15 minutes and it's a good excuse to get a little exercise on Sundays. We did learn that while walking to Church is fun for the kids, walking home is not, so we switch off driving. Anyway, we had a great photo moment two weeks ago with the kids, and I just happened to have the iPhone, so here you go.

How freaking cute are these kids?

Two Cute Little Fairies

2008-11-01T12:03:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of our cute little matching faires on Halloween. Izzy and Lilly were quite adorable as they went trick or treating. These pictures are taken at Grandpa's store.

Lilly is obviously way more interested in her candy than taking a picture, but Isabel is always good for a pose.

2008-10-23T19:17:00.001-07:00

What a wild month I have had. Jared has been traveling a lot for his company and so I have been single momming it (I don't think momming is a word until now). I have so much respect for those moms that do it on there own all the time. Thank goodness for parents and family to help us all out.

The end of September we went to Portland for Jareds brothers wedding. We had such a great time. All his brothers and sisters we able to make it. Not all the in-laws and nieces and nephews :( were able to come but the majority of his family was able to make it. It was good to see everyone. We had a blast. Dancing all night long and playing with everyone. We got to see Lisa new edition to her family and he was just a doll.

A week later Jared had to go to Sacramento for work so we decided to load the kids up again and take them to Cali. for a few days. This time we got the RV so the ride was much more enjoyable for the kids. It was long drive but we were very grateful for the time we got to spend with Jared. Jared left a couple of days later for Washington for 4 days but now he is home for a couple of weeks then off to Boston. We are trying to make it so I can go with him on that trip but we will have to see.

On the 31st we are going to court for the termination hearing for the Birth fathers rights. Hopefully he will get to court and just do it on his own but if not the state is ready with there case and they will win it with no problems. Especially since he is still in jail. So it looks like our adoption with be finalized in late Nov or early DEC. yeah! yeah! yeah! We will be so excited and relieved to have this whole mess over with.(until next time right Jared :))

Here are some fun Pictures of our last month in the slideshow. Enjoy and have a wonderful week!!!

another week

2008-09-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Another week has gone by. Tomorrow morning Jared leaves for three day to Philadelphia and I am watching 2 other foster kids this week. A girl that is 4 and a boy that is 2. I am crazy. It should be alright just a little busy. Isabel will be so excited hopefully the two girls will get along. Tonight we had dinner over at my aunt and uncle house it was fun we don't so that enough. Thanks for the good times Brady family. This week Lilly has been so cute and sassy at the same time. If you don't give her what she wants she will hit you and then really fast (so she doesn't get into trouble) she tickle you and smiles really big. It is hard not to smile back but that is a bad habit for her to get into.
Today I realized I have life pretty good right now. My family is all healthy, my kids are good kids and I have a great husband. Sometimes I think we forget how blessed we really are.

School

2008-09-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

Brady and Isabel started school this last week and they love it!!! I love it too. They go early in the morning M/W/F yeah three days a week. It is my test run to see if I should have them in the same class next year or put them with different teachers. I hear pros and cons for both ways. Most of the pros are about being easier on me so I don't know what I will do. I guess we will see how this year goes. Lilly is loving the attention that she is getting from Jared and me. She loves being the center of everything so for 3 hours of those days she gets anything she wants (from her dad) and she and I read books without the siblings bugging us. I LOVE SCHOOL!!!

2008-08-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

We have been in St George this week. On Wed. we went to Las vegas and played at Circus Circus. We had a lot of fun.

This was a ride that Isabel and Brady wanted to ride this is the before picture

This was the after picture

Thanks to my mom and dad we were able to go on a lot of rides with the two older kids because they walk around with Lilly. After the Adventuredom we went to see some friends in Las vegas and had a great night. Good food folks and fun. They have a little girl that will be five in a few days and when we left Isabel asked if she would be in her preschool class because she had so much fun she wanted to play with her again. Thanks Jinny and Matt!!

Hike to the Letter (also known as the Y)

2008-08-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

So about a month ago, Jackson came over first thing one morning and asked if I would take him up to the Y. He and I had hiked it once with the scouts and he thought it would be cool to go again. Keli was out of town and so Jessie came and watched the girls and Brady, Big Parker, Jackson and I were off.

Have to say, it was awesome. Those 3 boys are hilarious. I really doubted that Brady would have enough gas in the tank to make it clear to the top, and I was right, but Big Parker ended up taking Brady about the last fourth of the hike on his back.

Anyway, good times and hilarious pictures and I topped it all off by ruining their dinners with some delicious ice cream at the creamery. Enjoy!

P.S. In case you were wondering, Brady asks me everyday, "Dad, remember that time we hiked to the letter?" I always tell him it's the Y, he repeats, "Oh the Y," then next time asks, "Dad, remember that time we hiked to the letter?"

Kids

2008-08-11T19:43:00.001-07:00

For all those who are wondering we are still in the process of adopting the girls. We are still waiting on the Birth father but we are not even a little worried about what will happen with him we just have to do the trial because it is the law but very soon within two months we will be all finalized. Yeah!!

our sunday

2008-08-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

This was last sunday I thought the kids looked so cute and of course Brady and Isabelle (that is what we are calling her now when I remember) were totally all for pictures but Lilly was not having any thing to do with it. Very typical :) Sorry about all the post in one night but I finally had time to do it.

Mountain Men and Woman

2008-08-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here we have our own mountain men and woman this was probably the best "house" at the heritage park it had a lot of hands on things for the kids.

More park city pics

2008-08-11T19:18:00.000-07:00

There was a Classroom and Brady got chosen to show some of the discipline methods they used back then. Hopefully he won't get into trouble in two weeks when they two kids start preschool!!

Our trip to park city

2008-08-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

This year for our family vacation we went to park city and plated in Utah. We have not stayed in Utah for a long time so it was fun to hang out and see some things we haven't done yet. First we went to This is the place heritage park. It was suprisingly very fun. We thought that maybe we would spend of few hours then go over to the zoo. But we ended up spending all day there and we had a great time. In the picture that is where the kids rode the horse, and were in the petting zoo and Jill riding the train with Lilly as the conductor. We also rode on the mountain coaster and the alpine slide. The mountain coaster was a BLAST!!! I think I could have rode that all day long. They also had a zip line but we weren't able to go on that maybe next time. It looked like a huge rush. The rest of the time we just spent together as a family and had a ball. Thanks Jill for all you did to organize it for us this year!!!

Milk Mustache

2008-08-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

We made smoothies and Lily really enjoyed hers as you can tell I thought it was so cute.

4th of july

2008-07-07T07:32:00.000-07:00

We had a fun filled weekend and I am so retarded I didn't take any pictures. On the fourth Jared woke up at 5:30 am (I know what you are thinking but it is true he really did) He took Brady and Ashton to see the hot air balloons take off. They LOVED it. We had our traditional big 4th breakfast and then unfortunately Jared had to work at our store. We just played around here for the day and then we had a BBQ with the family. We usually go to fox field to watch the fireworks but with my dad not feeling so well we decided to do something different. we walk to the field right by our house and watched the fireworks. It was AWESOME. I think we are going to try and do that every year. The fireworks felt like they were coming right to us. My dad was not able to stay he still is very tired so mom and him went home about 7:30. Which makes me sad because watching the fireworks is one of his favorite things. On sat. we went to mom and dad house and did fireworks in front of there house and there neighbor Lannie had some "good" fireworks. To finish off our weekend we went to the canyon for dinner last night. It was so good to get away for the hot busy city and relax in the mountains for a few hours. Overall I think we could call our weekend a success. Sorry I have no pictures to show for it I will do better next time.

potty

2008-07-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Lilly grabbed my hand and said potty. We went into the bathroom and she was pulling at her diaper. So I proceeded to put her on the toilet. She thought she was so big. We sat there for about 5 min and then she farted. She got the biggest grin and then wanted to wipe. This is such a new experience for me when I was potty training Brady he thought the toilet was going to attack him if he sat down on it. Ashton already was potty trained when she came to live with me so this is kind of a new experience for me. I think Lilly is pretty young but I will certainly be encouraging her to go to the bathroom.

Lilly and her crazy hair

2008-07-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

Lilly hair the greatest hair that you can make it go crazy (as the kids say) Her hair is so fine that when you wash it you make make it stand straight up or have the "messy" look. She thinks shes pretty funny when she gets out of the bath.

Zoo

2008-07-01T07:50:00.000-07:00

About a month ago Jill and I went to the zoo. I just downloaded the pictures so I thought I would post them so you could see how much fun it was. We went on a day that was a little cool it was great!!!

2008-06-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

My dad surgery went very good today. They ended up doing a quad bypass. Everything went as good as it could have, so hopefully his recovery will go smooth. Thanks for the kind words and support from everyone.

My Dad

2008-06-25T16:07:00.001-07:00

Whenever I think my crazy life is going to become calm I think the Lord wants to remind me that he is in charge. My dad went in for a check on his heart today he has been having a lot of pain lately when he is working. They went in to check it out and found out he is hurting because there are three arteries that give blood to his blood. The major one is block completely and the other two have partial blocks in them. Tomorrow they are going to do a triple maybe a quad bypass on him. The doctors are amazed that he is still alive. They told him because has been in pretty good health it has keep him alive. I am so nervous open heart surgery is very nerve racking. The doctors told him his risk is very low due to his good health but I'm still very scared. I'm am so grateful for my dad and all the things he has taught me in my life. He has made me the person I am today.

sick family

2008-06-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

We have had a bunch of sicko in our house. First Lilly was sick for a few days at first I thought maybe she had drank a yucky sippy cup but after a few days of throw-up and nasty diapers I figured that she has the flu. Then yesterday I got sick. I was praying to the porcelain god all night long. Then I had a migraine headache all day long. I was so grateful that it was sunday and Jared was home so he could watch the kids. By the end of the day I was feeling well enough to eat which was a good sign. By this morning I felt much much better. But poor Ashton woke up with a headache and she was throwing up. She feels better now so hopefully it will skip Brady and Jared.

This weekend

2008-06-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to St. George with my mom, grandma Brady and my sister Jill. We had a great time. My aunt and uncle had a 50th wedding anniversary party. I thought what a great excuse to go and play in St George with no kids. Jared is the greatest he was happy to watch the kids and I love coming home and finding out that it is not as easy as it looks being a full time mom. It is always good to have the husbands really appreciate what we go through everyday. Jared always gives me such a bad time about going to bed early and now he understand a little more when the girls wake up at 7 am your tired by 10 pm. (He usually wakes up at about 9:00 but then again he goes to bed at about 2 or 3 am) We went shopping all day on Friday and found the cutest outfits for the kids for the our sealing day and family pictures. It was so fun!!!

Good News

2008-06-11T19:23:00.000-07:00

We have great news from our house. We are going to be able to adopt our two little girls!!! There is a small waiting period about 4 weeks (we think)and then we will be able to go to court and make it all official. We are so excited to have these two little blessing in our lives and in our home forever. We love them and care about them so much. It has been a huge roller coaster of feelings through out the last 15 months. Happy, sad, mad frustrated, and excited. We have learned and grown so much as a family. Thank you for all the support and love from everyone.

2008-06-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

One of Lilly's favorite things to do is spray herself with the water bottle. She thinks it is so funny. When I am doing Ashton's hair with the spray bottle I have to hide it or else lilly gets it and drenches herself. Here is one time I caught her and her shirt was just soaked with water.

2008-06-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

More Ioespa Pictures

Camping

2008-06-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

We went camping over memorial day weekend at Ioespa. Which is a Hawaiian burial place. They go there every year to celebrates he Hawaiians who came over to help build the SLC temple. It a pretty much desert now but when they were they they made it very beautiful. Jared families goes there every year and I make Jared go ever few years. It makes him a little nervous with kids. (lets be honest there is not much that doesn't make Jared nervous with the kids) The kids had a blast they got really dirty and I only made them bathe one time.(only because we didn't have very much water) Here are some of the pictures that we took while we were there.

Crazy Week!!!

2008-05-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yes it was our anniversary and we went out this year last year we didn't because we didn't feel comfortable leaving the girls yet. We had dinner and while we were at dinner Jared has had this tooth that has been bothering him for about two weeks. He could not even enjoy our dinner so I told him we were going to go to the dentist and we did. Then we went for yogurt so all in all it was a great way to spend the evening.(really no kids I didn't really care what we did.) By the way the young pictures of me were not suppose to be on the blog Jared thought it would be funny and I don't know how to take them off.

We went to court for our girls and the judge was not ready or willing to make a decision without an evidence hearing. He wants to hear from the doctors, therapists and everyone involved in the case. so he extended it so that the attorney general and defense attorney could subpoena everyone. So we will have to wait until June 27 to see what is going to happen he will make a decision on that day. Thank you for all the prayers and kind words in our behalf.

11 Wonderful Years...

2008-05-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

Today is our anniversary. We were married 11 years ago and it has been the best and craziest 11 years of my life. Not only do a million things happen between 23 and 34 if you're single, figuring out marriage and having someone to share every success or disappointment with is just an incredible and amazing thing. Keli and I compliment each other perfectly and though we've had some bumps, love has made everything worth doing and made each day of life something I look forward to. I love you so much honey and I'm lucky that I found you back in Cinnamon Tree. :)

Here are some pictures from the blessed day back in 1997 as well as some of my all time Keli favorites.

Sad Day

2008-05-06T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today is a bitter sweet day for me. My Grandma Darrington passed away this morning. She has been really struggling for the last few weeks so I am very glad that she is not in pain any longer and that her body has been restored. She was such a strong women so it was very hard to see her so weak. She also is with my grandpa who died about 16 years ago. I am very grateful for the knowledge of the gospel n our live this would be much harder without that knowledge of eternal families. I know within a couple of hours of being in heaven she started gardening because that gave the her greatest pleasure. She also can watch all the BYU sports she wants I'm sure her and grandpa have prime seating for all the events. I love her and she will be greatly missed.

my pretty princess

2008-05-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

Ashton loves to dress up. I loved this outfit. She didn't understand why I made her take it off before we went outside. What do you think?

Anxious for fun in the sun

2008-05-05T10:57:00.000-07:00

I bought a slip and slide about 2 months ago. The kids having been asking me when they can use it. They would look outside and say "yep its sunny I guess mom will lets us play with the pool." I would then reply it is too cold. Well they got there wish today. I figured it was too cold but not so cold they would die. I set it up and they went down few times and then started to shiver. I think they know now that mom was right and it was still too cold for the "pool".

More pictures of Lilly

2008-04-30T10:59:00.000-07:00

So here's some more pictures of Lilly. My sister Lisa asked to see more pictures of Lilly, but the problem is that you can't usually get her to pose for the camera. She just runs away usually, but last night I got home, and she was sitting on the couch watching Scooby Doo, so I quickly snapped this picture.

Then, next thing you know, she was a part of a photoshoot.

She was wondering what I was doing here, and this is where I think she's going to bolt.

Then she throws this pose and looks at my like, "Dad, take my picture."

Then she give me the shy look.
Then she goes back to the confident pose.
Then she gets a little sporty here at the end showing me her cool shoes. It was really funny so I thought I would post the pictures. Enjoy.

BBQ for the Departing Croppers.

2008-04-28T20:05:00.000-07:00

So we got together tonight with some friends for a BBQ for the Croppers who have been friends for several years. Taylor, Scott and I have been on many camping trips and they honestly were very painless mostly because I really enjoy socializing with Taylor and Scott. Not only that, but the Young Men really don't know how lucky they are to have Taylor cooking such awesome meals for High Adventure Camp. All around they have just been really neat to get to know over the past several years and we're going to miss having them around.

Scott and Taylor hanging out hovering over the food.
Keli and Rachel talking about something while Taylor enjoys the food.
Blaine getting messier than he ever has before I'm sure. :)
Lilly cleaning up the food and ice cream at the kids table.
Lucy enjoying her ice cream with a fork.

All in all we had an awesome time and look forward to some more awesome bbqing this summer even though the Croppers won't be here. You guys are awesome and we're glad we got a chance to get to know you during your stay in Utah.

More pics from the bbq here.

Kids are hilarious...

2008-04-23T23:43:00.000-07:00

Mom went to St. George and brought them back sunglasses. Ashton has slept with her sunglasses on once and Brady has probably already lost them, but it made for some pretty funny pictures. Ashton is very meticulous so she knows right where her glasses are, but Brady has probably lost his by now, and so the ones he's wearing are Jessie's I think. Anyway, they really wanted pictures taken in their sunglasses so here they are.

Lilly as usual does not want to get involved, but the kids are trying to rope her in anyway. She has some sunglasses too, but was not enthusiastic about getting a picture taken.

Brady is playing it cool here, but he was pretty stoked to see the pictures.

I honestly enjoyed the 6 1/2 years that Keli and I were "childless." It was so fun to do the things we did back then, but this stage of life is just awesome. Besides the drama of the foster situation, these kids are just a blast and watching them grow up and learn things and get these fun personalities is just incredible and we feel really blessed to get to do it. But I gush... Peace.

Mr. Mom

2008-04-11T14:37:00.001-07:00

So Keli went to St. George for a few days with her mom and grandma and I've been home. I was trying to work today and then I realized it was very quiet. I feared the worst, but this is what I found.

They're all in our bed watching TV and Brady is out. The funny thing is, Lilly couldn't have gotten up their herself so someone hoisted her up. At the end of the day, it's nice that they just chill on the day's that Daddy's home with them.

Ashton's Birthday

2008-04-07T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today is Ashton's Birthday. That means it's almost the 1 year anniversary of them coming to live with us. Last year, Ashton spent her birthday in a group home because she had been removed, but not quite placed with us. Pretty much since last year around Brady's birthday, she's been asking for a butterfly cake for her birthday, so viola:

We had a really fun time and Ashton got a new baby, a Barbie, a swimming suit, some new flip flops and a Belle tea set. It was a pretty good haul and she has made a point to play with everything at least once in the past 12 hours since she got it, and 10 of those hours she was sleeping so.... Anyway, fun time. The rest of her birthday party pics are on flickr here:

Ashton's Birthday

Our Pennsylvannia/Baltimore/DC Trip

2008-04-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

So a couple months ago, Jared had to go on business to Pennsylvannia. It worked out perfectly because it was a week after our foster girls went home for the first time, so Brady and I decided to go with him. We had a fun time. I'll post some of the pictures on here, but we had a great time. We went to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvannia.

While in Pennsylvannia, we also got to take an Amish Buggy Ride. It was pretty cool. We had this old Amish guy that took us on a little tour. Even though it was January, it was still nice outside so we go to see them plowing fields with teams of horses and got to see their houses and stuff. It's a very simple life out there and sometimes I think, "That might be nice." Then I realize I would miss my shows so I stop thinking that way. :)

We went to Baltimore one day and went to the aquarium. It was very cool. They had a dolphin show that Brady loved and he pretty much dug the whole thing.

We also made a trip out to DC. We got pretty good at riding the Metro out there. I like the idea of a Metro. I wish we had something like that here. Anyway, we went on a monuments by moonlight tour that was awesome. Brady didn't think it was that great, but when the monuments are lit up, it just adds a lot to the experience.

What I was struck by more than anything is how much God is mentioned all over the monuments. It seems like today there is an effort to remove God from all things government, but when you go back there, he's just everywhere. I'm just waiting for some nutjob to make a big deal out of it and ask them to scratch God out of all the stone carvings.

Brady did all right in DC, but on our way from Pennsylvannia, we decided to buy a stroller which turned out to be smart. We got all the way through the Holocaust Museum while he was asleep. That was a heavy experience that would not have been good for him to see. Jared and I both really appreciated going through it though so best of both worlds.

All in all, a great trip. It will be fun to go on the trip again when kids are more interested in the whole thing as well.

There are more pictures of our trip at:

Pennsylvannia & Baltimore

DC Pictures

2008-03-31T12:35:00.001-07:00

more easter pictures

First time wahoo!!!

2008-03-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

I have said for months that I needed to set this up so Jared started the process and I am going to try and finish it. Our life is as crazy as ever. We had a great Easter. Saturday we went to my mom and dad's and had easter egg hunt with the family. On Sunday we went to Jared's moms house. We have a great fun weekend.

We still have our foster girls. we don't really know for how long but we enjoy them while we have them. A couple of weeks a ago I was really struggling with the whole situation and I went to church. Our Bishop was speaking and he said we all have struggles and hardship in life, we just need to remember that this is the plan of happiness and sometimes we need to seek for the happiness. I rolled my eyes and thought, this is not the happiness that I signed up for. After chruch I really pondered that thought. I decided that I need to seek for happiness. It is not always automatic. My attitude towards our situation has greatly improved.

Today I have to take Ashton to the dentist where she is going to have surgery for dental work. She has not been able to eat all day she has had a hard time. I feel sooo bad but we only have 2 more hours. yeah!! I hope to get more pictures on tonight.

Have a great day!